122 THE MORAL ASPECT OF 



legitimate business of any kind which is moral or im- 

 moral, and none which is not capable of being made either 

 the one or the other. 



Hence, so far from regarding the province of politics, 

 national or international, as having no ethical significance, 

 I should say that, like all occupations, down to that of 

 selling tape, it furnishes the means of both learning and 

 teaching goodness. The only difference_ betwgen the 

 business of the statesman and that of his humbler neigh- 

 bour is that it gives him opportunities of doing right and_ 

 wrong on a larger scale. The consequences of his actions 

 reach illimitably further : the welfare of a whole people 

 may lie in his hands, and the destiny of nations hang upon 

 his lips. There is here more call than anywhere else for 

 the wise mind to conceive, and the resolute will to realise 

 great ends. It may be more difficult for the statesman to 

 recognise the good he should strive to do ; for duties 

 collide and obligations are frequently inconsistent, and his 

 wisdom and rectitude are more sorely tried. But that 

 right and wrong are irrelevant, that morality does not 

 count, that the nation is not safer in the hands of the wise 

 and good than in those of clever tricksters whom moral 

 considerations do not bind nor moral ideals inspire, is 

 certainly not true. Men, placed in such situations, stand 

 for a nation's character as well as for a nation's might ; and 



O ' 



an enlightened people will not separate the two, nor will- 

 ingly see either the one or the other betrayed. 



But great as are the consequences that may flow from a 

 statesman's action, and vast as are the possibilities of good 

 and evil at his command, he still cannot directly touch the 

 nation's inner life. He cannot make it righteous, any 

 more than a father can make his children good ; for moral 



